Jake: Oh, really? Who does Kevin James play in it?
Sandler: Ha ha, it's a serious movie. [pause] Trotsky.
Jake: There it is!
A group of people that, whenever one is involved in a production, others are almost guaranteed to show up at some point.
This used to be a very enforced part of media making. Studios expected artists to specialize into units. An example would be John Ford being specialized in westerns, which meant that large parts of the crew — both in front of and behind the camera — would literally always work together. Another aspect of Hollywood filmmaking which used to enforce this in the past was that studios would often have exclusive contracts with big names spanning several years and movies. For instance, the vast majority of Humphrey Bogart's films after he made it big were for Warner Bros.
John August coined the term "Clique Flick" on his filmmaking podcast Script Notes.
See also Those Two Actors and Only So Many Canadian Actors. When each member tends to play the same sort of role every time, they're a Universal-Adaptor Cast. Associated Composer is a subtrope.
Example subpages:
Other examples:
- Akiyuki Shinbo, the director for all of Studio Shaft's works, has a selection of voice actors that pop up time and time again. Hiroshi Kamiya, Chiwa Saitō, Miyuki Sawashiro, Kana Hanazawa, Maaya Sakamoto and Takehito Koyasu are the ones most likely to show up.
- Hayao Miyazaki always taps Joe Hisaishi to do the soundtracks for his movies. He also had a tendency in the 80's to cast Sumi Shimamoto for the lead roles in his films, but stopped that later on.
- Hiroyuki Imaishi’s go-to team of voice actors would be Hiroyuki Yoshino, Katsuyuki Konishi, Mayumi Shintani, Nobuyuki Hiyama, and Tetsu Inada.
- Koichi Mashimo frequently works with favorite seiyus Miyu Irino, Aya Hisakawa, Maaya Sakamoto among others. Musically he frequents the group Ali Project, and Yuki Kajiura. Also has his favorite screenwriters. In addition he always goes to the same studio for the art direction and in-betweening and completion work of his anime.
- Makoto Shinkai's earlier works all feature music composed by Tenmon. This was the case until The Garden of Words and Someone's Gaze, which instead featured music composed by Daisuke Kashiwa. His three latest works, Your Name, Weathering With You and Suzume all feature music by RADWIMPS.
- Barring his earliest projects, Masahiko Ohta never directs an anime without screenwriter Takashi Aoshima and composer Yasuhiro Misawa on-board.
- All of Naoko Yamada's works at Kyoto Animation have Reiko Yoshida as the head writer (even Liz and the Blue Bird, which is a spin-off of Sound! Euphonium, despite the fact that Jukki Hanada was the head writer for the main series). This also held true for her first work after she left Kyoto Animation, The Heike Story.
- Shinichiro Watanabe frequently has Yoko Kanno on board as the composer for anime series he directs; they've worked together on Macross Plus, Cowboy Bebop, Kids on the Slope, Space☆Dandy and Terror in Resonance. Scriptwriter Keiko Nobumoto also worked with him on several series.
- Comic book writer Alan Moore has collaborated with several artists more than once. He worked with:
- Alan Davis on Miracleman, Captain Britain, and D.R. & Quinch
- Dave Gibbons on Watchmen, the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything", and a 1980s Green Lantern story
- Kevin O'Neill on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a 1980s Omega Men story, and a 1980s Green Lantern Corps story
- Bill Sienkiewicz on the graphic novel Brought to Light and the aborted mini-series Big Numbers
- John Totleben on Swamp Thing and Miracleman
- Rick Veitch on Swamp Thing, Miracleman, and the 1980s story "The Mirror of Love"
- Writer Marv Wolfman has collaborated with artist George Pérez on The New Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and History of the DC Universe.
- Writer Michael Gallagher has frequently collaborated with artist David Manak, most notably on early issues of Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) and the ALF comic. The two also handled Spy vs. Spy installments in MAD for a short time.
- MAD has several examples, stemming from the Running Gag of calling their regulars "The Usual Gang of Idiots":
- Senior editors Charlie Kadau and Joe Raiola frequently wrote gags together.
- The above-mentioned Michael Gallagher regularly collaborated with artist Tom Bunk for one-page gags.
- Nearly all of Anthony Barbieri's contributions to the magazine were Monroe and..., which was originally drawn by Bill Wray and then taken over by Tom Fowler.
- For most of the magazine's history, nearly all of the movie and TV show parodies were illustrated by Mort Drucker or Angelo Torres (plus a handful from Jack Davis), with writing usually handled by Larry Siegel, Lou Silverstone, Dick DeBartolo, Arnie Kogen, or Stan Hart. Over time, newer writers began to take over; as of The New '10s when the magazine largely stopped publishing new content, writing duties usually went to DeBartolo, Kogen, Desmond Devlin, or David Shayne, while Tom Richmond, Hermann Mejia, and Tom Bunk became the main illustrators.
- For most of the 21st century, Mark Fredrickson did the cover art.
- Writer Tom King is a frequent collaborator with artist Mitch Gerads, having worked together on The Sheriff of Babylon, Mister Miracle (2017), Heroes in Crisis, and Strange Adventures (2020). The reason why Mister Miracle even happened is because the two were originally planning to work on a Batman one-off "The War of Jokes and Riddles", which DC decided to integrate into King's run of Batman using that series' artists, and King pushed to work on something else so they could properly collaborate again.
- The Disney Animated Canon has had its common band of voice actors and composers, starting with the end of the Golden Age: Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Sebastian Cabot, Sterling Holloway, George Lindsey, Alan Menken, Randy Newman, and Cheech Marin.
- Alan Tudyk has more or less become Disney's answer to John Ratzenberger, having a role in all of their animated films since Wreck-It Ralph.
- Not only did this apply to the voice actors, but the actual animators and directors as well. Back when Disney started to make animated features, Freddy Moore, Bill Tytla, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston often acted as supervising animators. By the time Cinderella rolled around, the head animators consisted of Thomas, Johnson, Milt Kahl, Marc Davis, John Lounsbery and Ward Kimball. Clyde Geronimi, Wilford Jackson and Hamilton Luske directed most of the 50's feature. From Sleeping Beauty on, Wolfgang Reitherman began directing alongside them, eventually becoming the studio's head director from The Sword in the Stone through The Rescuers.
- Since the renaissance, Disney had a new team of artists that worked closely together for the rest of their 2D animation career. Animators like Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, Mark Henn and Eric Goldberg worked for directors including John Musker & Ron Clements and Kirk Wise & Gary Trousdale. They had a bevy of recurring story artists like Chris Sanders, Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt, Brave), Burny Mattinson, Roger Allers (The Lion King (1994)) and Joe Ranft. Alan Menken almost always composed the music, usually with Howard Ashman before his passing. Tony Jay, Jim Cummings, Corey Burton, Wayne Knight and most notably David Ogden Stiers had multiple roles. Jeffrey Katzenberg, later co-founder of Dreamworks, headed the division at its peak.
- Pixar:
- Pixar Animation Studios is one of the most close-knit group of artists in history: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Joe Ranft, Lee Unkrich, Bob Peterson and Brad Bird. Most of them were students together at CalArts in the late 70s. Each of the filmmakers display their unique vision, but all the filmmakers pitch in on each other's work during the process, no egos involved, for the purpose of creating the most entertaining and the most meaningful movies they possibly can.
- If it's a feature film, John Ratzenberger willnote have a voice role in it. When Pixar's John Lasseter supervised the dub of Spirited Away, he even brought over Ratzenberger as a participant due to his "good luck charm" status.
- SNL castmember Bill Hader, Edie McClurg, Bonnie Hunt, Wallace Shawn, Brad Garrett, Richard Kind, Bud Luckey and Peter Sohn have had multiple appearences in their films. Joe Ranft did voices too, until his death in a car wreck in August 2005.
- For music, you can usually expect music by either Michael Giacchino, Randy Newman, or Randy's cousin Thomas Newman (exceptions: Brave, The Good Dinosaur, Onward, Turning Red, and Soul, which were composed by Patrick Doyle, Mychael Danna (both "The Good Dinosaur" and "Onward"), Ludwig Gorranson, and Trent Reznor, respectively).
- Don Bluth was always followed by Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, and the three had left Disney at the same time to start Bluth's independent animation studio. Among the actors normally cast, Dom De Luise was a regular (often cast as the second banana and/or comic relief), with Will Ryan not to far behind. Charles Nelson Reilly was also frequently cast as a henchman or lackey to the main antagonist. Judith Barsi also intended on continuing her career as a voice actress until her untimely death; in fact, had she not been murdered, she could have continued to voice Ducky in the ensuing The Land Before Time sequels, as it was her favorite role.
- Cartoon Saloon's "Irish Folklore Trilogy" movies (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers) are all directed or co-directed by Tomm Moore and produced by Paul Young, and the music for all three films is provided by composer Bruno Coulais and Irish band KÃla. Brendan Gleeson also voices prominent roles in both The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea.
- EVERY RAP GROUP, CREW OR LABEL EVER. Every solo album one member does, you can almost guarantee the others won't be far behind. This is particularly prevalent in the somewhat self-insular rap groups the Wu-Tang Clan and OFWGKTA.
- And Young Money. Any album by any member of YMCMB is probably going to have at least another member of the team on it somewhere (and there are several). Being the labels' founding musicians, chances are any YMCMB album will have some sort of vocal involvement from either Birdman or Lil Wayne.
- Or Drake or Nicki Minaj. The three of them along with Wayne make up YMCMB's Power Trio, and are the three most well-known members, so this is a Justified Trope to some extent.
- GOOD Music, Kanye West's clique and label, does this as well - chances are any album the label releases will have involvement either in production or in vocals from Kanye himself, a hook from The-Dream, and features from any artist on the roster.
- Kanye himself. Most stuff he's done since the start of his career has involved Common, John Legend, Malik Yusuf, Mos Def and Jay-Z somewhere along the line. He also gained his childhood friends Really Doe and GLC considerable exposure, along with his cousin Tony Williams. These days, if Kanye has a new album out, you can usually expect any (or indeed all) of these artists to be in hot pursuit - anyone mentioned above, Kid Cudi, Raekwon, The-Dream, Jay-Z, anyone not mentioned who is signed to GOOD Music, Talib Kweli, Justin Vernon, Lupe Fiasco, La Roux and Rihanna. You can also always expect his mentor No I.D. to have given some of the tracks a once-over production-wise.
- And Jay-Z. Almost every Jay-Z album these days will involve production from one or more of Kanye West, Timbaland, Just Blaze or Pharrell Williams. Chances are Kanye may have a verse or two as well. Others who are likely to be involved are Jay's wife Beyoncé, J. Cole, Rick Ross, Nas and Rihanna.
- And Young Money. Any album by any member of YMCMB is probably going to have at least another member of the team on it somewhere (and there are several). Being the labels' founding musicians, chances are any YMCMB album will have some sort of vocal involvement from either Birdman or Lil Wayne.
- Brad Paisley largely writes songs with Kelley Lovelace, Chris DuBois, or Lee Thomas Miller. He also uses members of his road band, The Drama Kings, on most of his albums.
- George Strait has had many of the same staff since his 1992 soundtrack for Pure Country, including the same batch of session musicians (among them: drummer Eddie Bayers, fiddler Stuart Duncan, steel guitarist Paul Franklin, guitarists Steve Gibson and Brent Mason, pianist John Barlow Jarvis, and bassist Glenn Worf). Tony Brown was also the producer for all of these until Cold Beer Conversation, when Chuck Ainlay took over. Almost all of his albums have also included at least one song written by Dean Dillon, who penned his debut single "Unwound".
- Garth Brooks has several examples:
- The most famous is "The G-Men", a set of session musicians who have appeared on all of his albums except In the Life of Chris Gaines: Bruce Bouton (steel guitar), Mark Casstevens (acoustic guitar), Mike Chapman (bass guitar), Rob Hajacos (fiddle), Chris Leuzinger (electric guitar), Milton Sledge (drums), and Bobby Wood (keyboards). All of his albums until The Ultimate Hits (again excluding the Chris Gaines album) were produced by Allen Reynolds and engineered by Mark Miller (not the lead singer of Sawyer Brown). After Reynolds retired, Miller was promoted to producer and John Kelton took over engineering duties. Many members of the G-Men also played on most albums produced by Reynolds in the late 80s-early 90s, such as those by Hal Ketchum, Crystal Gayle, and Kathy Mattea, as well as Ty England's Highways and Dance Halls, which Garth produced (Ty was formerly a guitarist in Garth's road band).
- In addition, every studio album except for No Fences and Man Against Machine has also featured at least one song written by Kent Blazy. Other songwriters who have turned up on multiple albums include Tony Arata, Pat Alger, Stephanie Davis, Victoria Shaw, and Kim Williams.
- Travis Tritt's first four studio albums had multiple overlapping musicians, including backing vocalists Dana McVicker and Dennis Locorriere, bassist Mike Brignardello, guitarists Richard Bennett and Wendell Cox, and drummer Steve Turner. All four were produced by Gregg Brown, with several songs written by Jill Colucci, Stewart Harris, and Tritt himself.
- Except for his little known debut "What Room Was the Holiday In" and songs on which he was a featured artist, all of Tim McGraw's material has been produced by Byron Gallimore (albeit with a couple different co-producers over the years). Also, the vast majority of his music videos were directed by Sherman Hasley until his 2013 death.
- Whenever Sia makes a music video, you can expect Maddie Ziegler to be in it after appearing in her last three.
- Kenny Chesney has been produced by Buddy Cannon since 1997. Also, nearly all of his music videos since "Young" in 2002 have been directed or co-directed by Shaun Silva.
- John Conlee has been produced by Bud Logan for literally his entire career, and has used Brent Rowan as his sole lead guitarist since "Friday Night Blues".
- Toby Keith has included songs written by Scotty Emerick from nearly every album from How Do You Like Me Now?! onward, and several from Bobby Pinson starting with Big Dog Daddy. Also, all but two of his music videos from 1997's "We Were in Love" onward have been directed by Michael Salomon.
- The vast majority of Keith Urban albums have at least one song written by Monty Powell, and backing vocals from Jerry Flowers (a former member of Urban's pre-fame band The Ranch).
- A number of videos from Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual period featured Lauper alongside wrestler/wrestling manager Captain Lou Albano and her then-boyfriend David Wolff in roles.
- Iron Maiden's 1980s days had producer Martin Birch and artist Derek Riggs as a given. From 2000s on, while the artist has been inconsistent, South African producer Kevin Shirley is a given.
- All but two of Patty Loveless' albums have her husband Emory Gordy Jr. serving as both bass guitarist and producer. Many of them also had at least one song written by Kostas, and backing vocals from Vince Gill (for whom she has also returned the favor on many occasions) and Mac McAnally.
- Nearly all of the albums released on Average Joes Entertainment, a label co-owned by Country Rap artist Colt Ford, have been produced by Noah Gordon (who had a minor chart entry in 1994 with "The Blue Pages") and Shannon Houchins.
- Every release by Country Music record label Big Loud has been produced by Joey Moi, who co-owns the label. Many of their releases are penned by their roster of songwriters: Craig Wiseman (the label's other owner), Chris Tompkins, Rodney Clawson, Matt Dragstrem, Brad and Brett Warren (who formerly recorded as the Warren Brothers), Ernest K. Smith, HARDY, and Sarah Buxton. Both Ernest K. Smith and HARDY also record for the label, and Buxton sometimes chimes in on backing vocals.
- Big & Rich had their singer-songwriting clique, known collectively as the MuzikMafia. The fronting members included Big & Rich members Big Kenny and John Rich; Gretchen Wilson; James Otto; Shannon Lawson; and Cowboy Troy. Many of them collaborated with each other, often singing and writing on each other's albums. A few other non-musical members existed over the years, but the group seems to have largely dissipated.
- Tracy Lawrence tended to have most of his songs written by Larry Boone, Paul Nelson, and Kenny Beard. He also did most of his production work with Flip Anderson, a member of his road band.
- Factory Records used Peter Saville as its designer and Martin Hannett served as in-house producer on many of the early releases, including those by Joy Division and New Order. Saville kept designing for the New Order even after Factory went bankrupt in 1992.
- All of Justin Moore's albums have been produced by Jeremy Stover, who also writes many of the songs on them. Many of his albums also feature songs written by at least one member of the songwriting team The Peach Pickers (Dallas Davidson, Ben Hayslip, and Rhett Akinsnote ).
- Clint Black wrote nearly all of his material with his guitarist Hayden Nicholas.
- With regard to anything he's done since ABBA, if Benny Andersson is involved, expect Tommy Korberg, Anders and Karin Glenmark, and latterly Helen Sjoholm to be in there as well.
- Nearly all of Ronnie Milsap's albums were produced by Tom Collins and/or Ron Galbraith, and most of them also had at least one song written by Mike Reid.
- The combination of Elton John, lyricist Bernie Taupin, his backing band of Davey Johnstone (guitar), the late Dee Murray (bass), Nigel Olsson (drums) and sometimes Ray Cooper (percussion), with production by the late Gus Dudgeon and Paul Buckmaster or Del Newman conducting orchestral parts, was arguably collectively responsible for the classic Elton John sound of 1972-1975, and has partially if not fully been involved with Elton ever since. Davey and Nigel have stayed as part of Elton's backing band since 2001, while Bernie has stayed (with few exceptions) as Elton's full-time lyricist since 1983.
- Giorgio Moroder's production posse in the 1970s included co-producer Pete Bellotte and a fairly consistent core group of musicians including Keith Forsey (drums), Mats Bjorklund (guitar), Les Hurdle (bass) and Dino Solera (woodwind). Bellotte and Forsey remained frequent collaborators as Moroder moved more into film soundtracks in the 1980s, Forsey also increasingly acting as lyricist and sometimes co-producer. During the 1980s, a recognisable posse of lead and backing vocalists turned up on many of Moroder's projects, including Paul Engemann, Beth Andersen, E.C. Daily and Joe Esposito.
- Nearly all of AC/DC's studio albums from Stiff Upper Lip onwards have been recorded at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver under producer Brendan O'Brien (except for Stiff Upper Lip, which was produced by George Young).
- Andy Hamilton's comedies often share a similar supporting cast, for example both Old Harry's Game and Revolting People feature (as well as Hamilton himself) actors Philip Pope and Michael Fenton Stevens (both of whom featured in other shows including KYTV) whilst actor David Swift also appear in Old Harry's Game as God, having previously appeared alongside Robert Duncan (Scumspawn), Fenton Stevens, Pope and Hamilton in Drop the Dead Donkey in which James Grout (the Professor in Old Harry's Game) also played a guest role.
- William Shakespeare had a stock company which included Richard Burbage (who generally played the leads) and Will Kemp (who played the comic roles). This is lampshaded in Hamlet where the actor playing Polonius is the same actor who originally played Julius Caesar (and therefore got stabbed again by Richard Burbage who played both Hamlet and Brutus).
- Many of Stephen Sondheim's musicals were created in association with director-producer Harold Prince (Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Merrily We Roll Along, the failed version of Road Show known as Bounce) and writer-director James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Passion, the 2012 revival of Merrily We Roll Along). Almost all of these shows were orchestrated by Jonathan Tunick. (Sondheim had a lot of trouble with previous orchestrators when he started composing Broadway musicals in the 1960s.)
- Every Broadway musical originally starring Ethel Merman, with the exception of Gypsy, had a book written by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse or by Herbert Fields with either B.G. DeSylva or Dorothy Fields. Cole Porter wrote songs for five Ethel Merman shows, and she was the only performer whose name he associated with the song ideas in his personal notebook.
- Gilbert and Sullivan's operas, from The Sorcerer onward, were produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte's Comic Opera Company and its successor, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. There were many recurring actors, but a few names stand out:
- George Grossmith and Rutland Barrington were J.W. Wells and Dr. Daly, Sir Joseph and Captain Corcoran, Major-General and Sergeant of Police, Bunthorne and Grosvenor, Lord Chancellor and Earl of Mountararat, Gama and Hildebrand, Ko-Ko and Pooh-Bah, and Robin and Sir Despard. They were last cast together in The Yeomen of the Guard as Jack Point and Wilfred Shadbolt, but Barrington took a leave of absence.
- Grossmith was replaced after Yeomen by Walter Passmore. Barrington was the original Grand Inquisitor in The Gondoliers and a revival assigned the same part to Passmore. Passmore and Barrington appeared together as Tarara and King Paramount in Utopia, Limited and as Rudolph and Ludwig in The Grand Duke.
- Other dependable Savoy players included Richard Temple in comic-heavy roles (Grossmith, Barrington, and Temple as Marmaduke were the only actors from the 1877 production of The Sorcerer to reprise their roles in 1884), Jessie Bond and later Emmie Owen in sympathetic mezzo-soprano roles, Leonora Braham and later Geraldine Ulmar in leading soprano roles, and Rosina Brandram in all the Grande Dame and Old Maid roles.
- Joe Iconis of Be More Chill fame often recruits the same cast and crew for his shows, and frequently involves these people in concerts and independent albums featuring his music under the name "Iconis & Family." Frequent members include Lauren Marcus (also his wife), George Salazar, Eric William Morris, and Jason SweetTooth Williams.
- Lin-Manuel Miranda seems to be forming one with musical director Alex Lacamoire, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, actors Christopher Jackson, Anthony Ramos, and Karen Olivo. When he appeared on Drunk History, Miranda told Jackson, "Long as I got a job, you got a job."
- Movista, the producers of the Tsukiuta and Identity V stage play series, tend to cast a lot of the same actors. While the general 2.5D sphere tends to have a few famous names who appear in a lot of work, mostly Touken Ranbu cast members, Movista's group is separate from this. Hirai Yuki and Chiba Mizuki have had lead roles in almost all of Movista's series, and Chiba sings the theme songs even for plays he isn't in (Tsukipro's Machine Elements steampunk AU). Particularly noteworthy was their original series, 'Kuro to Shiro', where out of 16 cast members, 7 were in both Tsukipro and Identity V, and only one was in neither. The same choreographer, J.U.N., has also worked on both Identity V and Tsukipro's SQS series.
- Overlapping slightly with the Music examples, Rockstar Games has worked with film composer and musician Woody Jackson on Red Dead Redemption and its sequel, L.A. Noire, Max Payne 3 and Grand Theft Auto V, while Lazlow Jones has appeared on the radio of every Grand Theft Auto game since III as an Adam Wested version of himself.
- Capcom has been regularly hiring composer Casey Edwards to write rock songs for their games ever since he made "Devil Trigger" for Devil May Cry 5 and "Bury the Light" for that game's Special Edition. Afterwards, Casey wrote "Exohuman" for Exoprimal, even if that's not a Devil May Cry game. Then "Fire Inside" for Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat made him team up once again with Victor Borba as the vocalist after the both of them worked on "Bury the Light".
- Remedy Entertainment have used and re-used a number of actors in their games. This is especially noticeable because Remedy enjoy Medium Blending, mixing live-action scenes into their narratives.
- James McCaffrey in Max Payne (as Max Payne) and Control.
- Matthew Porretta in Alan Wake (as Alan Wake's voice actor; Motion Capture was performed by Ilkka Villi) and Control.
- Ilkka Villi in the Alan Wake series (as Alan Wake's live and Motion Capture actor; voice acting was performed by Matthew Porretta) and Control.
- Alternative Rock band Poets of the Fall as Fake Band "Old Gods of Asgard," in both Alan Wake and Control. Poets vocalist Marko Saaresto was also the likeness for Vladimir Lem in Max Payne.
- Courtney Hope and Sean Durrie in Quantum Break (as secondary characters) and (you guessed it) Control (as the Player Character and The Dragon, respectively).
- The Dragon Quest series has, throughout its long history, featured the same three core members of the development team: scenario writer Yuji Horii, music composer Koichi Sugiyama, and character designer Akira Toriyama.
- Telltale Games, before their dissolution in 2018, had a habit of reusing voice actors. Roger L. Jackson, Dave Fennoy, Andrew Chaikin, and Adam Harrington each appeared in six Telltale titles between 2012 and 2018; Erin Yvette, Laura Bailey, and Matthew Mercer each appear in four, with even more actors popping up across two or three of the studio's franchises.
- Death Stranding: Pretty much most of the big names that were slated to make Silent Hills are involved in this game. Alongside Norman Reedus and Guillermo del Toro, there's also horror mangaka Junji Ito who provided his likeness as a cameo. Additionally, most of the Japanese dub's cast are Metal Gear veterans. Artist Yoji Shinkawa, who has worked as Kojima go-to character and mech designer since Metal Gear Solid, fills in the same role on this project too. Ludvig Forssell, the composer for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain also composed for Death Stranding.
- Wadjet Eye Games tend to use a core group of the same voice actors in their games, most prominently Abe Goldfarb, Shelly Shenoy, Daryl Lathon, Francisco Gonzalez, and Mike Pollock. The company head, David Gilbert, will also usually appear as the voice of a minor character. In addition, Thomas Reign also tends be the composer on all of the games developed by Gilbert himself.
- Any game made by Valve is almost certain to have Ellen McLain's voice in it somewhere — she's in every Half-Life 2 game (plus Alyx), both Portal games, both Left 4 Dead games, Team Fortress 2, and Dota 2. And if the game has male voices, Ellen's husband John Patrick Lowrie is fairly likely to be one (or more!) of them (every Half-Life 2 game, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, and Dota 2).
- Whenever writer Takeshi Masada undertakes one of his projects, artist G Yuusuke and composer Keishi Yonao are generally not far behind. Even when he was forced to change mediums after all the trouble following the closure of Greenwood, the three still stick together for Avesta of Black and White.
- Alfa Legion videos are sure to have Bruva Alfabusa, Thunder Psyker, Eliphas the Inheritor and Karl the Deranged, and several other Legionnaires appear from time to time as well.
- Vocaloid composers Hitoshizuku and Yama have worked on so many songs together that they have a separate channel dedicated for their crossovers. For added posse, their videos are mostly illustrated by Suzunosuke. They eventually form an official group named TeamOS.
- Kurt Hugo Schneider's most frequent collaborators are his brother Max, Sam Tsui, and Alyson Stoner.
- The voice-acting from Digimon Resumido is done by Friendzone Team and some recurring dubbers from the Revengeverse.
- Following the cancellation of her Disney Channel series Sonny with a Chance and its reboot So Random!, Allisyn Ashley Arm (aka Zora Lancaster) has used cast members from both shows (especially Audrey Whitby and Matthew Scott Montgomery) in her YouTube comedy series, in particular Astrid Clover.
- Rooster Teeth is getting up there, if they're not already. Between the company's staff and hired actors, it's not hard to find recurring actors - Lindsay Jones, Barbara Dunkelman, Michael Jones, Shannon McCormick, Jen Brown, Lee Eddy, Samantha Ireland - with a few even producing\writing\directing as well (Gray G. Haddock, Kerry Shawcross, Miles Luna).
- Shipwrecked Comedy itself is an example, but the group also frequently works with: director William Joe Stribling, composer Dylan Glatthorn, cinematographer Alex Gallitano, and actors such as Joey Richter, Blake Silver, Jessica Jade Andres, Lauren Lopez, and Christopher Higgins, who has both acted and been the behind-the-scenes photographer for numerous projects.
- At this point, Shipwrecked, Team Starkid, and Tin Can Brothers all frequently share actors, with Starkid and Tin Can Bros sharing co-founders Joey Richter and Brian Rosenthal (though Shipwrecked and Tin Can Bros. once pretended to have a rivalry).
- Discussed by the Super Best Friends Zaibatsu during their Let's Watch of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, in which they point out how Metal Gear's voice cast - barring David Hayter, who is frequently busy with things outside of voice work - frequently seems to pop up together, bringing up Robin Atkin Downes and Paul Eiding's roles in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle specifically.
- Out of practicality, Gus Johnson's sketches regularly feature the same actors: His brother Sven Johnson (several of his other family members make regular appearances too), his roommate Eddy Burback, and his girlfriend Abelina Sabrina. Likewise, Gus regularly appears in sketches on Sven's and Sabrina's channels. He and Ian Kung have also appeared in several of each other's sketches.
- A lot of the people who did voices for Winter of '83 had also worked with Lewis Lovhaug before or are even fellow former Channel Awesome members, including his wife Viga Gadson, Nash Bozard, Chuck Sonnenburg, Allison Pregler, and Marc Swint.
- Many animation studios often had their own stock company of voice actors. Hanna-Barbera's productions, for example, usually had Daws Butler, Don Messick, John Stephenson, Janet Waldo, Jean Vander Pyl, and Frank Welker among its regulars.
- 90% of Cinar and CinéGroupe's productions usually had Sonja Ball, Rick Jones, Terrence Scammell, Holly Gauthier-Frankel, etc. in their cast.
- Filmation productions often noticably featured characters voiced by Lou Schiemer, one of the company's co-founders, although he was usually either uncredited, or went by the name "Erik Gunden".note Other regulars included Lou's daughter Erika Schiemer, Jane Webb, John Erwin, Melendy Britt, and the late Linda Gary and George DiCenzo.note
- Also, most of the time their composers were Ray Ellis and his son Marc, who also performed in the same capacity when Australian game show producer Reg Grundy set up shop in America in the early 80s (composing the music for Sale of the Century, Scrabble, Time Machine, Hot Streak and Scattergories, plus the unsold pilots Keynotes and Run for the Money; they also did the music for the non-Grundy Catchphrase).
- During much of the 1980s, DiC Entertainment tended to have Bettina (the title character in all of their Rainbow Brite productions), Scott Menville, Cree Summer, Danny Mann, Danny Wells, Jeannie Elias, character actress Marilyn Lightstone, and various voice actors from Toronto. DiC also had Shuki Levy compose the soundtrack to what may have been 98 percent of their output during The '80s.
- Every show created by Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere will usually feature most of or all of the actors of one of their previous shows. The most common ones being Kath Soucie, Pamela Adlon, April Winchell, Eddie Deezen, Justin Shenkarow, E.G. Daily, Ashley Johnson, Anndi McAffee, Tress MacNeille, and many more.
- Craig McCracken has created 4 animated shows. In his shows, he tends to use some of the same voice actors, often casting them in roles different from the other shows of his they've appeared on. These actors include Tom Kenny, Tara Strong, Tom Kane, and Keith Ferguson. Grey DeLisle and Phil LaMarr, while regulars on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, had also done voices at some point in The Powerpuff Girls (1998).
- Genndy Tartakovsky (who co-voice directed the first few seasons of the 1998 The Powerpuff Girls series with McCracken, as he usually voice directs his shows) tends to use the same voice actors a lot as well. He's worked with some of the above VAs on shows of his own (such as Strong, LaMarr, Kane, Kenny and DeLisle). He's also worked with Corey Burton, Richard McGonagle, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jeff Bennett, Rob Paulsen and James Arnold Taylor on two or more projects. While he often works with voice actors, he doesn't only cast them, having worked with on-camera actors and comedians (Mako, Tim Russ, Brian Posehn) in a few of his projects.
- Along with some of the Star Trek examples mentioned above, Greg Weisman often tends to bring back some of the actors from Gargoyles in bit or main characters as well as reusing actors he started working with after Gargoyles. This includes Thom Adcox Hernandez, Jeff Bennett, Ed Asner, Dee Bradley Baker, Cree Summer, Vanessa Marshall, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown, Steve Blum, and Keith David, among others.
- Every series that Tom Ruegger and Steven Spielberg collaborated on in the 90s seemed to have some combination of these voice actors: Tress MacNeille, Rob Paulsen, Maurice Lamarche, Frank Welker, Paul Rugg, Cree Summer
- Julie Brown was a guest on one episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, and later became a regular on Animaniacs. Tom Ruegger also cast his son Nathan in three of his series.
- The writers and voice cast of the shows later reunited for the Disney show The 7D.
- For the animation company Rankin Bass, writer Maury Laws and composer Romeo Muller were involved some capacity since the company began and right up to the year that it closed its doors.
- The Book of Life:
- Xibalba is voiced by Ron Perlman, who has worked with Executive Producer Guillermo del Toro on Cronos and both Hellboy movies, among others.
- Grey Delisle, Carlos Alazraqui, and Eric Bauza have minor roles in this film, all of whom had lead roles in director Jorge Guiterrez's previous work El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera (Frida, Puma Loco, and White Pantera respectively).
- Many cartoons made by Nerd Corps Entertainment feature the same production crew, with company founders Asaph Fipke and Chuck Johnson usually either receiving credit for creating the show or developing the concept for TV. Likewise, many of the same voice actors show up time and time again. Scott McNeil, Colin Murdock, Samuel Vincent, Lee Tockar, and Kathleen Barr voice major characters in at least three of them.
- A majority of Mike & Liz Young's productions under Splash Entertainment (formerly Mike Young Productions and MoonScoop) have involved assistance from Irish production house Telegael.
- Toronto-based Nelvana Studio is prone to using the same actors and actresses in its productions, be they live-action or animation. Common talent includes/included Alyson Court, Tara Strong, Sunny Besen-Thrasher, Michael Fantini, Hadley Kay, Jim Henshaw, Billie Richards, and Cree Summer, among many, many others.
- It's a pretty safe bet that any cartoon Fresh TV (such as 6teen and Total Drama) produces will have been created by Fresh TV founders Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch, and Laurie Elliott will probably have written at least one episode. Due to Only So Many Canadian Actors, they also frequently share talents with Nelvana, which Pertsch and McGillis used to work at before founding Fresh TV.
- And then of course, there's the voice actors. If someone voices a character in a Fresh TV production, odds are they'll show up in at least one more. Kristin Fairlie, Christian Potenza, Darren Frost, Emilie-Claire Barlow, Terry McGurrin, Megan Fahlenbock, Stacey DePass, Lauren Lipson, and Bryn McAuley show up in at least three.
- Total Drama's director for its first two seasons Todd Kauffman seems to have picked up on the trend. Animated series from his own small studio Neptoon Studios (such as Grojband and Sidekick, co-productions with Fresh TV and Nelvana, respectively) frequently feature voice actors and writers from Fresh TV's works (and Nelvana's as well, due to Kauffman originally working with them too), and also have their share of recurring names, like Lyon Smith and Denise Oliver.
- The Loud House:
- The show reunites many people who worked with creator Chris Savino on Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls (1998), and Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, all shows where he became a producer at some point.
- Between Nickelodeon shows, The Loud House has many crew members from The Fairly OddParents! (which it essentially replaced as Nickelodeon's top non-SpongeBob SquarePants show), such as writers Kevin Sullivan, Sammie Crowley, Whitney Wetta, Alec Schwimmer, Miguel Puga and Karla Sakas Shropshire; and voice actors Tara Strong, Daran Norris, Susanne Blakeslee, Grey DeLisle, Carlos Alazraqui, Maddie Taylor, Kari Wahlgren, Eric Bauza, Jeff Bennett, Rob Paulsen and Dee Bradley Baker.
- The show also acts as a reunion for the cast of Doc McStuffins. The common cast includes, alongside some of the aforementioned voice actors, Lara Jill Miller, Cristina Pucelli, Nika Futterman, Caitlin Carmichael, Andre Robinson, Jess Harnell, Kimberly Brooks and Gary Anthony Williams.
- Looney Tunes:
- DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' creative crew was mostly made up of ex-Warner Bros. staffers (specifically, from Friz Freleng's and Robert McKimson's units), having been founded shortly after the original Termite Terrace shut down.
- After Chuck Jones was fired from Warner Bros. for violating his exclusive contract, he took most of his crew with him (as well as Mel Blanc) after he found work at MGM.
- Director Art Davis and screenwriter Sid Marcus frequently collaborated during their animation careers. Be it Columbia Cartoons, Warner Bros., or DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, they only stopped teaming up when the latter died. When Davis was demoted back to animator under Friz Freleng's unit at Warner Bros., Marcus left the studio.
- There are plenty of Arthur and Martha Speaks writers who write for Work It Out Wombats!, such as Kathy Waugh, Peter K. Hirsch, and Joe Fallon.
- Atkinson Film-Arts had a posse of voice actors that they would use repeatedly for their various animated productions, such as Rick Jones, Terrence Scammell, Abby Hagyard, Les Lye, Robert Bockstael, and Anna MacCormack. Some of them continued to work together after the company folded.
- Stu is usually accompanied by his girlfriend Jeanine Kasun, as well as writers/historians Mark Evanier, Earl Kress, and Jerry Beck.
- More than half of the books written by Canadian children's author Robert Munsch are illustrated by Michael Martchenko. Any book Michael Martchenko has illustrated for will have been written by Munsch, Allen Morgan, or Martchenko himself.
- Disney has often used the Rome-based Royfilm studio for Italian dubs of their TV shows and films.